Publishing great content helps establish your brand’s expertise and authority while building trust among your audience. For healthcare organization content marketing, this opportunity comes with benefits and challenges.
This article explores best practices to help your content marketing strategy succeed.
The pandemic impacted how many businesses approach content marketing. As consumer needs and expectations shift, marketers face new challenges to make an impact on their audience.
If you’re ready to boost your healthcare organization’s online presence with the power of content marketing, keep reading to learn more.
Key Takeaways:
- Content marketing is more cost-effective than traditional forms of marketing, and it generates more traffic and leads.
- Healthcare organizations are in a unique position to leverage content marketing since many people seek health-related information online to self-diagnose or research treatment options.
- Content creators should understand their target audience and focus on their area of expertise as they plan out a content calendar for consistent publishing.
Why Should Healthcare Organizations Prioritize Content Marketing?
The third most common online activity in the United States is seeking online health information. Eighty percent of adults have sought health-related information, especially about a specific disease (66%) or a treatment plan (56%).
Organic content is a highly effective marketing channel for healthcare organizations. Mayo Clinic, for example, has become a leading online authority with global reach thanks to strategic content marketing. If you’ve ever Googled a health-related query, you’ve probably seen a Mayo Clinic article ranking among the top results.
Content marketing isn’t a new concept, but it has become a critical component of most marketing strategies over the last few years. Nearly 70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing.
When you consider that content marketing costs an average of 62% less than traditional forms while yielding approximately three times as many leads, it’s easy to see why.
Healthcare organization content marketing allows professionals to reach their audience online. Well-written, informative, relevant content builds authority, fosters trust in an institution, drives organic traffic, and continues to perform for months and even years after being published.
5 Tips to Optimize Your Healthcare Organization Content Marketing Strategy
Content marketing is has become a highly competitive field. Simply churning out large quantities of poor content isn’t going to help your brand rank on the search engine results page (SERP) or give you a return on your investment.
To create effective content, follow these tips:
1. Understand Your Target Audience
Before you start writing, you need to know who will be reading your content. It’s tempting to write about topics you enjoy, but it’s much more important to write about what your audience wants to read instead.
For example, is your target audience potential patients or medical suppliers? Is your goal to provide health advice or boost medical device sales? The topic, tone, and vocabulary in your content will be drastically different for those intended audiences.
Take the time to research your audience demographics and understand what kind of content they prefer to engage with. From there, you can start brainstorming topics and determine what content forms and channels you’ll use.
2. Focus on Your Expertise
The most successful content marketing strategies target a well-defined niche rather than a broad subject. “Healthcare” or “medical field” is way too vague and has too much competition with thousands of other content creators targeting those keywords.
Your healthcare organization’s content marketing plan should focus on its area of expertise. Not only does this increase your chances for Google to understand your website and rank your content, but it also allows you to build upon your authority in your field.
If you’re an eye doctor, for example, readers are likely to trust your articles about eye health. They’re much less likely to feel you’re qualified to give advice for a sprained ankle.
3. Write Like a Human
Most people searching for health information on Google won’t be looking for advanced scientific studies filled with technical jargon.
Healthcare organization content marketing can sometimes struggle to find balance between demonstrating academic authority on a subject and connecting with average readers.
Remember that search engine optimization (SEO) ranks content that is useful and easy to read. Keep your audience in mind and use language they understand. Break up text with headlines, bulleted lists, and graphics so people can easily skim to find information.
People like to feel connected with doctors and medical staff on a human level. Encourage this by sharing videos, posting on social media, creating interactive content, and engaging with your audience in the comments.
While engagement is important, your organization should have clear guidelines set in place for appropriate conduct. All content must comply with HIPAA, and your team should know when to escalate issues and advise people to contact 911 for medical emergencies.
4. Use a Content Calendar for Consistency
Data suggests that 63% of businesses don’t have a documented content marketing strategy. That impromptu approach often leads to topics that haven’t been thought out, long periods between publishing, and last-minute scrambles to think of an idea.
In addition to creating high-quality content that meets basic SEO guidelines, publishing consistently is one of the keys to a successful marketing strategy. A content calendar will help your team stay organized, plan ahead, brainstorm ideas, and stay on track to publish great content consistently.
5. Refresh and Republish Old Content
The biggest investment with content marketing is time. For that reason, republishing old posts that are still relevant is an effective way to get more mileage out of that content rather than rewriting it from scratch.
In some cases, this technique can maintain or even improve content traffic and SERP rankings. When repurposing existing content, make sure to:
- Update old outbound links to more recent sources and studies
- Verify that internal links aren’t broken
- Refresh the content
- Update the headline (if applicable) to more accurately target a focus keyword
Develop an Impactful Healthcare Content Marketing Strategy
The pandemic changed the way people seek, view, and interact with content online. Is your team ready to face the challenges of content marketing and adapt to the ever-changing guidelines and best practices?
Following the tips outlined above will help you get started on the right foot, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg.
Contact us to speak with our seasoned team of healthcare content creators and see how we can help you plan a winning marketing strategy today.